CH 22.2

Chapter 22.2 – Exams

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At eight o’clock, both of them arrived at Yunzhong school entrance.

Yunyang High School is a century-old school, which has nurtured female astronauts, scientists and celebrities.

The older generations used to say that you have succeeded a portion of your life once you got into Yunzhong; and you have already succeeded half when you entered NJU. Top students in the province are gathered in this school and many here will become the future’s pillars.

There are huge interpersonal connections in this school.

Today is Yunyang High School’s independent enrollment day. The architecture of the school entrance is quaint and rather antique. There are two large verses of gilded characters on both sides of the door.

Written on the left was “Let students be the masters of development”, while the right side was “Laying the foundation for the students’ lifelong advancement”.

In the middle a banner with two rows of white text on a red background.

The first row: Century-old Yunzhong where Dongchuan’s outstanding students realize their dreams.

The second row: Earnest commendations, Yunyang High School being the first private school in the province to admit the highest number of students for ten consecutive years.

The horizontal banner in front of the school was put up very grandly.

The school gate was crowded with people and more than a dozen cars parked at the entrance, where parents and their children were waiting anxiously.

Su Qin knew there were a lot of independently-enrolled students in Yunzhong every year and seeing the densely number of people in front of the school, she began to feel nervous all of a sudden.

“Nervous?” Parking the bicycle on the side, Li Chuan came over to find the little girl biting her lips tensely while her hands clutched the notebook tightly, almost scratching out the page.

It would be a lie to say she was not nervous. Even Su Qin, who was already 35 years old, often had nightmares.

In her dream she was sitting in the exam venue, where all the students had turned in their papers yet she couldn’t open her eyes no matter how and couldn’t see the questions on the exam papers. She would also dream of herself looking at the questions in the exam venue, but she was unable to answer even a single question and finally woke up in anxiety.

That kind of apprehension about exams has been with her for about a lifetime.

Li Chuan reassured her in a low voice, “Don’t be nervous. Just calmly treat it as the usual test papers. Although a lot of students came today, the admission is not based on rankings but the results. Everyone can get into Yunzhong as long as they pass the passing score.”

Su Qin took a deep breath and nodded.

Yunzhong’s school gate opened at 8.30. The teachers had the students and their parents queued up separately, with the students’ parents standing on the left and the students standing in four rows on the right.

Under the direction of the teachers, parents and students quickly split into two groups. Li Chuan was standing in line when someone patted his butt from behind.

The man’s face sank. He turned around and quickly grabbed that groper’s hand with sinisterly ruthless eyes.

Wrist grabbed by Li Chuan, Mo Zongyang was also intimidated by the other party’s eyes. He smiled awkwardly, “Little Li, it … it’s me.”

Seeing that it was Mo Zongyang, Li Chuan released his hand, “Uncle Mo.”

Mo Zongyang cursed ‘motherf*cker’ in his heart, but his face appeared affably. His stoutly fist punched his chest, “Brat, I haven’t seen you for so long and you’ve become so fierce? Your reaction is so fast? What are you doing here?”

Li Chuan, “Sending someone for the exam.”

“Younger sister?”

Li Chuan didn’t deny it, except just asked rhetorically, “CEO Zhong came to send your kid to school too?”

“Yes ah, Little Li, are you pursuing the PhD? Aren’t you normally busy ah? After the exam, Brother will treat you to a meal?”

“Brother?”

“Calling Uncle is too old ah. I’m not that old yet. Hateful.”

Like the Li family, Mo Zongyang is also in the real estate development and he is quite acquainted with several of Li Chuan’s elders. Li Chuan had also seen his article in the newspaper and knew that Yun Fei was exactly his long-lost son.

Recalling Yun Fei’s ending in his previous lifetime, Li Chuan couldn’t help but sigh with emotion that Yun Fei has such a good father, Mo Zongyang, in this lifetime, which reckoned as the accumulated virtues from his previous lifetime.

Mo Zongyang is 40 this year and was an orphan.

At the age of 15, he moved bricks in a kiln factory, and by chance met Yun Qin, who was a junior high school student.

Yun Qin’s grandmother was the factory regular worker and the conditions at that time were not bad. Mo Zongyang often sent Yun Qin home and over time, he got to know her grandmother too.

In the hot summer, the grandmother would pickle sugared tomatoes at home and take them out for the two children to eat once they reached home. Grandmother never looked down on Mo Zongyang and always thought that this youth could do great things.

When Mo Zongyang was dating Yun Qin later, grandmother could not afford Yun Qin’s tuition fees, so Mo Zongyang went to work in the city and sent his monthly salary back to Yun Qin.

Mo Zongyang supported Yun Qin from high school and university. When Yun Qin pursued her post graduate studies, Mo Zongyang had become a chief contractor. Both of them felt that their lives were getting better and went to get a marriage certificate.

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Taking advantage of the National Day holiday, Yun Qin took a train to Mo Zongyang’s city to visit him. At that time, Yun Qin was already pregnant.

When Yun Qin arrived at the station, it was already 10pm which was also the day she was abducted by the human traffickers and sold to the Fool in the mountains.

After Yun Qin disappeared, Mo Zongyang almost went crazy. He didn’t finish the project and looked for her everywhere.

If it wasn’t for the old lady at home, Mo Zongyang wouldn’t be able to hold on and would probably become like those parents who lost their children, pushing the scavenger carts to search for their children everywhere.

Making money arduously while searching for Yun Qin, Mo Zongyang had done projects in many places and he would go look for the newspaper office to publish a missing person notice in each location.

For 15 years, he had never stopped publishing the missing person notice.

Since the success of his career to getting rich, there were constantly women around him and he had also tried to start a new relationship, but at the final step and facing the other woman, he would always remember Yun Qin who was pregnant at that time.

He thought, if they would come home to find him one day yet he was already married with children, then … how sad would she be ah.

He could not give up and waited for precisely 15 years.

From lean to plumpish and from a young man to an uncle.

Fortunately, Heavens took pity on him and let him wait until the day his family reunited.

Li Chuan didn’t know the relationship between Mo Zongyang and Yun Fei in his previous lifetime, but he remembered Mo Zongyang waited until his hair turned gray yet his wife never returned in his sixties.

He didn’t understand how hopeless that feeling was, nor could he comprehend the kind of love that could make a man fall into desperation for more than 30 years.

That kind of feeling, probably worse than death?

**********

There were about fifty students who came to take part in the independent-enrollment, and Yun Fei saw Su Qin standing in the first row at a glance.

Due to his height, he was forced to stand in the last row. When the teachers asked the students to go in, his gaze never left Su Qin.

The group of students were led into two separate classrooms.

The students then queued at the door and the teacher at the threshold instructed, “Nothing can be brought in for the exam except the pens. Place the pencil cases, school bags and materials that you brought on the tables at the door. If I find anyone taking anything other than the pens, it will be considered as cheating, do you get it?”

The students answered in unison, “Got it!”

Teacher, “Good, now go in order and sit from the back to the front. Only one person per table.”

Su Qin took out the pens and placed the pencil case on the table. She was the first to walk into the classroom and sat down on the last row.

Walking into the classroom, Yun Fei happened to be in the last row too and was only one table away from Su Qin. He couldn’t hide his excitement and crumpled the tissue into a ball to throw at Su Qin, whose head was bowed and was silently reciting Chinese literature.

Getting hit, Su Qin looked up towards the direction the paper came from and seeing Yun Fei, she froze for a moment, “Feifei!”

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The stern teacher tapped the table and pointed at Su Qin with the rolled-up exam papers in hand and yelled, “What’s the matter, that female student? Don’t you want to take the exam? Leave at once if you do not want to take the exam. Yunzhong doesn’t need such a disorderly student like you. I’m giving you the first verbal warning and if there’s a second, you will be treated as cheating.”

Su Qin buried her head, pursed her lips and stopped looking at Yun Fei, waiting for the teacher to hand out the exam papers.

The verses and Chinese literature were not difficult for Su Qin, but reading comprehension was slightly difficult.

The final essay part was a semi-narrative essay: [If I hadn’t ____ ]

One might fail if not careful demonstrating the essay writing style during the high school admission exam. Since she is not literary talented, she took the safest route: affecting people with emotions.

Li Chuan didn’t teach her how to write essays when he tutored her. For essay writing, Li Chuan taught as such:

Spare no effort to showcase tragedy if you have the opportunity and it is best to make the readers cry. If an essay can reach the extent of making the marking teacher shed tears, then this essay is not far from scoring full marks.

Su Qin clutched her pen firmly and filled in the blank title of the semi-narrative essay.

__ [If I hadn’t been abducted and sold, how beautiful would my youth be?]